Dreaming Up Late Night

Senator Joseph Biden got the one reaction the university crowd at the Democratic debate couldn't hold back when he referred to the frontrunning Republican candidate, Rudy Giuliani as unqualified to be President, and that all of Giuliani’s sentences consist of “a noun, a verb and 9/11.”

But Senator Christopher Dodd also brought up the question of whether Hillary was "electable" against Giuliani, who polls the highest among the GOP candidates. Polls earlier this year showed Clinton with high negatives, approaching 50% of the electorate who said they would not vote for her, ever.

As I say in the earlier (in time) and following (in space) post, right now Hillary is not my candidate, but recent polls have shown those negatives going down, and now a thorough Pew study shows that Hillary would not only defeat Rudy in the general election, she would do so by a large margin, and in nearly every geographical area and category of voter. In perhaps another reversal, this study finds Hillary's supporters more positive about her than Rudy's are about him.

A final Hollow-een note: Supporting P.W. Singer's contention, quoted in the posts below, that "As it has been planned and conducted to date, the war in Iraq would not be possible without private military contractors," there's a report that the Army needs a personnel increase of 1400 to offset losses in military contractors, simply to deal with supplying combat troops. Update: And an independent panel called for overhauling the Army's system for contracting in Iraq, because it is rife with fraud and abuse.

Speaking of personnel problems, tomorrow's Washington Post has a story about envoys resisting the State Department attempts to fire diplomats who don't accept postings in Iraq. Meanwhile, tomorrow's New York Times reports that Blackwater is hiring high powered lawyers and lobbyists in an aggressive fight to avoid prosecutions and/or being fired from Iraq.

Tomorrow's Washington Post also has a Robin Wright story about Donald Rumsfeld's attempt to manage the PR war as well as the war itself, calling for his staff to develop bumper-sticker slogans to support the war, and to "elevate the threat" and "link Iraq and Iran."